Robert F. Smith

Founder, chairman, and CEO

VISTA EQUITY PARTNERS

“Make sure you take time to think. I tell my CEOs: My job is to make their lives quiet so they can take one day a week or one day a month— depending on how dynamic their business is—and just think. Ask: What are the systemic things you want to change in your business?

How do you want to change them, and how do you create an engineered solution?”

Billionaire investor Smith’s Austin-based private equity firm, Vista Equity Partners, has a portfolio of more than 80 enterprise software, data, and technology-enabled companies.